Reborn Within My Soul
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Finding a notebook in the attic belonging to a "Daniel O'Reilly", Danny soon finds himself following the trail left behind by his dead uncle, and in the middle of the night, Danny finds the truth to his uncle's death and a secret about his ghost half.


**Disclaimer: **_Danny Phantom _and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International, Inc. "Dead to the World" is the property of Nightwish and Spinefarm Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

* * *

It's hard to imagine the loss of a sibling. I don't know what I'd do if we ever lost Jazz.

The worst part about that would be that it would be the second loss that my mom would suffer.

The first was her little brother.

You see, I was never supposed to know about Daniel O'Reilly…my uncle.

- - - - -

Dad and I were going through boxes in the attic, which I didn't even realize existed with the ops center on the roof, and I came across a sealed box. Mom had told us to check everything to make sure that it hadn't gotten wet or moldy and to put whatever was undamaged into the plastic containers that she'd bought. Everything else would be cleaned and reorganized later.

The box I had found was plain cardboard, one corner dented in, sealed with packing tape. While Dad wasn't looking, I cut through the tape with a razor-sized blade of ectoplasm, opening the box. Inside were three things I didn't even know Mom, let alone any of the Fenton family, owned – a Roman Catholic bible, a silver crucifix, and a small photo album with my name on it…well, my first name, anyway.

I opened the Bible, the cover page reading 'In loving memory of Daniel James O'Reilly'. Looking through the album, there were a lot of pictures of a kid about my age with red hair.

Dad finally noticed my silence and asked me if I was okay.

"Dad, who was Daniel O'Reilly?"

Boy, did I open my mouth at the wrong time.

My mom started crying right then, having just come up into the attic to check on us.

- - - - -

After two hours and a couple of boxes of tissue, Mom finally managed to tell me that Daniel was her little brother, who'd died shortly after his fifteenth birthday.

He was the reason that Mom had become a paranormalist.

And the reason that Mom had left the Church for good.

He'd drowned during the summer, having gone out for a swim in the lake, but no body had ever been recovered. At the funeral, Mom had asked the priest giving the eulogy why her baby brother had to die. When she challenged his statement that God had called him to his eternal home in Heaven, the priest told her that she could not understand the wisdom of God and that she had to trust that he was safe with God and the angels.

**All the same**

**Take me away**

**We're dead to the world**

Mom never went back to church, spending her days pouring over books on paranormal sciences and philosophy.

She started crying again, a few minutes later telling me that there had been something about me when I was born, a sense of familiarity that resulted in me being named after my late uncle rather than my dad.

It was weird, but a lot of what she was saying…I somehow already knew.

She told me that my uncle had been a poet and a lyricist. The only song that he'd ever completed and written music to was sung at his funeral by her. In retrospect, that made a lot of sense, considering that his works were always about escaping sorrow and finding ways to enjoy the little things in life.

However, this really hit me hard. No one knows about the composition book hidden in my pillowcase – the one that Lancer bought me after the retake of my eighteenth century poetry exam.

He had found one of my first poems in my desk.

**The child gave thought**

**To the poet's words**

**Gave comfort to the fallen**

**Heartfelt, lovelorn**

My works were focused on rising above the prejudice of others and the way that people can make the world seem good or bad just by the way they choose to act.

**Remaining, yet still uninvited**

**These words scented my soul**

**Lonely soul, Ocean soul**

My mom told me that I could keep the things that I found if I wanted, and she went into the attic, returning a short while later with a tattered old book, the pages made of unlined parchment.

It was my uncle's old writing book.

- - - - -

It's been a week since I found out about my Uncle Daniel. His poems are good, and I'm going to ask Sam for some music-writing software for my upcoming fifteenth birthday. I'm thinking I should try to finish what my uncle started.

**It's not the monsters**

**Under your bed**

**It is the Man next door**

**That makes you fear**

**Makes you cry**

**Makes you cry for the child**

Mom's been a complete wreck. I'm kind of hoping that I can get a few things Uncle Daniel wrote for her on a CD, so that maybe she'll cheer up a little, especially with his birthday so close to my own.

I think I kind of made a bad move getting her to remember about her brother, since it opened up a really old wound, but maybe getting her to think about the better parts of his life will help.

Late at night, I've been flying out to the pier with his notebook and a flashlight so that I can read. The lake seems more alive with his words playing in my head, the water-cooled wind breathing life into me.

**All the wars are fought**

**Among these lonely men**

**Unarmed, unscarred**

There have been a lot more attacks this week, but they just…haven't been bothering me as much as they used to. The scars fade away, the bruises fail to hurt – it's like I suddenly can't be harmed the way I used to be.

I guess, in some small way, I have my uncle to thank. He was a really deep writer, and some of the things he's written have really stuck with me.

- - - - -

My birthday was yesterday. I got the software I wanted from Sam, a guitar of all things from Mom and Dad, Doomed II from Tucker, and a noogie and Learn to Play: Guitar from Jazz, a book and DVD package that she figured would help me learn.

I would be writing the music for Mom's CD right now, but a poem just came to mind, so I'm writing that instead. It's a bit angsty, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

**I don't want to die**

**A scarless man**

**A lonely soul**

**Tell me now**

**What to do**

The scent of the water fills my nostrils suddenly, even though my house is nowhere near the lake, and the room cools down really quickly. I'm immediately in ghost mode, but nothing seems to be around me.

The sound of waves reaches my ears, and I'm out the window, racing to the beach where my uncle died.

Something is calling me.

**I studied silence**

**To learn the music**

**I joined the sinful**

**To regain innocence**

Was it the poem I was writing? I spoke of the escape from mortal life, but it was through dreams, not death, that I said one could find release.

Normally, I'd land on the beach, listening to the roar of the waters against the rocky cliffs nearby, but not this time.

The moon is the last thing that greets my eyes before I launch under the midnight blue waters.

**Heaven Queen, cover me**

**In all that blue**

**Little boy, such precious joy**

**Is dead to the world.**

Farther out into the waters and deeper down, I follow this silent signal, this voiceless call resounding within me. Closing my eyes, I flow into the current, riding with the spirits of the water.

**Heaven Queen, carry me**

**Away from all pain**

**All the same**

**Take me away**

**We're dead to the world**

A violent spasm tears through my ethereal body, and I stop where I am, opening my eyes. I expect something to be here, some ghost lying in wait, having set a trap for me.

There's nothing. No one. Just the still waters, so deep down that my eyes are the only light.

**Dead, silent, constant**

**Yet always changing**

**My favorite view**

**Of this world**

Wait, there's something. A presence. Not a ghost, but a faint tremor in the ether. I can feel it, warm and comforting.

It speaks to me, words of thought, not sound, speaking into my mind.

_I know you. I waited for you. My life – I gave it for you._

**As he died**

**He will return**

**To die in me again**

I know who it is. I felt him reaching out beyond the chasm between life and death. He died at fifteen – for my sake.

_You know who I am. Do not let her worry and be sad. I made the choice. I knew of you in dreams, young Phantom. You must tell her to let go, or I will be caught forever here, a consciousness unable to pass into the next world._

"I don't understand," I say, surprised that there are no air bubbles rising as I breathe before realizing that I don't need air in ghost form. "If you are still here, how is it that you and I…that you are the Phantom half of me?"

_There is more to the soul than you acknowledge. It is not a single force within, but one part of many. One part is what gives us life, another what gives us the core of who and what we are. However, what I am of the soul that once was your uncle is tethered here until my sister can let me go. The rest of me lies within you…_

"Giving me the power to be Danny Phantom," I answer. The warm feeling around me increases, as if signifying that what I had said was right.

**Weaving the cloth**

**Giving birth to**

**The Century Child**

**Who gave his life**

**Not for the world**

**But for me**

**Innocence reborn**

**Once more**

I don't believe it. All this time, he'd known. He'd made the ultimate sacrifice so that I could do what I had to do in order to protect my family and my town.

I feel his presence fade slightly, and though I don't know where it is that he's going to, I know that part of him will be with me forever.

Finally free of the siren's call that drew me here, I launch myself upwards, careening through the dark waters.

**Heaven Queen, carry me**

**Away from all pain**

**All the same, take me away**

**We're dead to the world**

The sun is rising in the east as I land in my room and rejoin the world of the living. There's a light breeze behind me, and I hear the rustle of paper. Turning, I see ink, flowing – from where I cannot tell – onto the last page of Uncle Daniel's writing book.

**Heaven Queen, cover me**

**In all that blue**

**Little boy, such precious joy**

**Is dead to the world**

**Heaven Queen, carry me**

**Away from all pain**

**All the same, take me away**

**We're dead to the world**

I kind of hate to admit this, but I'm crying. He finished the final poem.

There had only been a single line before today.

Now, it was all there.

_**No one ever leaves the world**_

_**Though their body may decay.**_

_**We live forever on past our end**_

_**In the love of family.**_

_**Sister loses brother**_

_**To the world beyond.**_

_**Yet, in her heart, he lives on**_

_**And remains there by her side.**_

_**The pictures and the memories**_

_**Of the people still alive**_

_**Keep forever our souls in safety**_

_**In the warm embrace of love.**_

_**My heart is with you, Sis.**_

_**Take care, Danny.**_

_**Love, D. J. O'Reilly**_


End file.
